If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. (Galatians 5: 15-18)

Here and often elsewhere Paul's letters imply that spirit and flesh are in contention. We understand the ways of the flesh are as bad as the ways of the spirit are good.

This was an important aspect of some Greek thinking. In Judaism both spirit and flesh were more often each seen as God's creations and inherently good.

Above the translator offers, "For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit." Paul's original Greek has a potentially different nuance: "Sarx epithumeo kata pneuma" or the body seeks according to the spirit.

The preposition kata for which the translator uses "opposed" is much more often translated as something less contentious.

Paul also goes on to write, "pneuma kata epithumeo sarx" or the Spirit seeks according to the body.

Above is a detail from a fresco by Michelangelo depicting the conversion of Paul.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ (Galatians 5: 13-14)

This is the only quote from Jesus that Paul offers in Galatians.

Paul did not not know Jesus-the-teacher. He knew Christ-the-transformer.

Thanks to the gospels we have more specific knowledge of Jesus than Paul.

But Paul understood the freedom and love - eleutheria and agape - that Jesus fully embodied.

For the Greeks agape was a specific aspect of love, distinguished from phila (friendship) and eros (sexual or self-actualizing).

Agape was understood as love's character when aimed at achieving the Good.

In full relationship with the Greatest Good the self is transformed.

You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offence of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves! (Galatians 5: 7-12)

I don't like Paul. But I may yet love him.

Paul is not a temperate man. He is madly in love with God. He is deeply in love with the Galatians. He is entirely convinced of the truth as he understands it.

Paul passionately desires that we join in this love affair.

We know that Paul circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3). Apparently those advocating circumcision for all Christians had gone so far as to suggest Paul also practiced conformance with the laws and traditions of Judaism.

Like a jealous lover Paul lashes out at those who would tempt the Galatians away from him.

What I especially admire is that Paul's love is a call to radical liberty.

This jealous lover does not try to own, but seeks to set free.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. (Galatians 5:5-6)

Paul can give us very dense sentences. The fifth verse is a short sentence dealing with the Holy Spirit, faith, hope, righteousness, and waiting. Some unpacking might help.

The following goes beyond a literal translation, but it may do a better job of communicating Paul's insight in language we will understand.

"By giving ourselves to the Spirit in full confidence and conviction we enter a state of actively anticipating (nearly experiencing) God's intention for our lives."

Do not be distracted by arguments over form. The issue of circumcision or uncircumcision is just such a distraction.

All that truly matters is for our confident understanding of God - our faith - to be made effectual and experienced through the self-sacrificing love of agape.

Above is a portrait of Paul by Rembrandt.

Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5: 2-4)

Redemption cannot be achieved through the law. Reconciliation with God cannot be advanced through the law.

Redemption and reconciliation are possible through a free person's decision to accept the grace of God.

By stepping outside the security of the law and accepting the risk of freedom we create the preconditions for experiencing grace.

Paul refers to grace at least 100 times in his epistles. Romans, First Corinthians, and Ephesians are especially dependent on the concept.

For Paul it is crucial that we avoid seeking to earn the love of God. We must instead yield to the love of God.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

Eleutheria Christos Eleutheroo is the Greek. For liberty Christ liberated us.

Paul joins Aristotle in advocating eleutheria rather than exousia. Liberty does not mean to have no impediments. Both the natural and social worlds tell us that impediments to self-discovery and behavior will always exist.

But we can be - are meant to be - free in the sense of speaking our mind, seeking our best, and becoming that which is our distinctive function.

About a century before Paul's epistles Diodorus Siculus defined liberty as a kind of to autezousion or self-control, and this notion of eleutheria is in Paul's meaning.

For Paul liberty in Christ is to be freed from the external slavery of the law in order to discover our best self: the self God intended. Once this true self is experienced we will be increasingly drawn to live consistently and coherently with that identity.

Now you, my friends, are children of the promise, like Isaac. But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. But what does the scripture say? ‘Drive out the slave and her child; for the child of the slave will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman.’ So then, friends, we are children, not of the slave but of the free woman. (Galatains 4: 28-31)

I chose this study, in part, because I have carried an ill-informed bias against Paul for many years. It was time to listen more carefully.

The main point of Paul's message to the Galatians does not trouble me. The way he chooses to say it causes considerable concern.

Above he has taken a Genesis story and attempted to apply it to his argument. I think he stretches the allegory rather far. So have I from time to time.

Along the way he also - unintentionally, I think - sows dragon's teeth of discord and enmity between Gentile and Jewish Christians.

In verse 20 Paul expresses a desire to change his tone. I join him in that desire.

Above is Paul Preaching to the Thessalonians by Gustave Dore.